Can You Go Shopping & Have Fun? | A Little Trip To The Galleria Hatfield

I won’t lie to you, the only way I can con B into going shopping with me is to offer a treat. The Galleria Hatfield is one place I don’t really need to force B to go to, he quite happily goes & I will tell you why in the blog post.
We were kindly invited along to The Galleria for the purpose of writing this blog for you! They didn’t have to ask us twice & as a treat I took B today after his mini induction to his new school.

The Galleria Hatfield

I’ve been coming to the Galleria since I was little, it has changed a fair bit in its time. I must say it has a completely different air about it now, its not quite the same but it has clawed itself back up with the introduction of features such as Get Wild! the large soft play open to kids & their parents, the Sega Arcade, a fantastic TKMAXX & the Nike store.

B loves coming to The Galleria for The Sega Arcade, a relatively new addition to mall. Years back they had a arcade on the walkway where all the restaurants are (I will talk about those later) this new arcade is amazing though.

B always walk towards this place with purpose, it is located on the ground floor of The Galleria by one of the entrances. He loves to come here as regularly as possible & it is our favourite arcade in Hertfordshire due to its range of games & the prizes on offer.
Games work out at roughly £1 a go, this is relatively usual for an arcade & it seems come the holidays they do deals every so often too to make the damage a little less to the wallet region!

As you can see from the image although the arcade isn’t large it is filled with AMAZING arcade games, the prizes are the best around. B’s favourite games are ‘Plants VS Zombies’ & the ‘Transformers’ shooting game. If you head to the Galleria make sure the arcade is one of the shops you visit.

For the first time ever we headed to The Galleria’s in house soft play ‘Get Wild!’. We’ve always had fly in & out visits to The Galleria so haven’t had the time to stick around for B to head into the soft play.
I’m not a fan of soft play but gave it a go for B’s sake.
Usual prices for entry PER 1 HOUR slot:
Adults & kids under 1 – Free

Under 2 – £4

Over 2 / Under 5 – £5

Kids over 5 – £6

I do find this rather expensive for a 1 hour restricted time at soft play. I’m unsure how other soft plays that are inside malls work but I think the pricing is a little steep. This is a soft play where you HAVE to stay with your children, you cannot leave them there so you can go shopping alone. While I was there the staff were exceptionally attentive, actively telling children not to climb up slides & helping little baby ones up to areas they couldn’t reach. This is amazing & not something you regularly see at soft plays. Staff at some of the soft plays I’ve gone to do their best to stay away from the climbing frames but the girls on when we visited were amazing. I do have an aversion to children being naughty at soft play & can honestly say that the girls dealt with every issue that arose when we were there, without being asked I may add.

B decided to give the soft play 183 out of 10. Apparently either we don’t quite have our grasp for numbers yet or he genuinely loved it that much. B is now 4 & was able to run around the soft play structure on his own & quite happily so. Be prepared for having to go on the structure with your children if they aren’t confident or if they are under 3 years old.
A cool plus point is that there is a small Costa stand in the soft play itself, the downside? The toilets are outside of the soft play so you have to leave and then re-enter.

The Galleria Hatfield has lots to offer in the way of shops, opposite to the soft play is TKMaxx. We headed there after our little exploration of the soft play. I managed to get B some lovely bits & even found some nice salt scrub for myself.
This is a large TKMaxx with lots on offer. They also have a Holland&Barrett, Clarks outlet, M&S outlet, FCUK, The Works, CEX, Gap & so many more. please make sure to check via the website to see what shops are still there when you head over.

Although this is was a longer trip than normal we didn’t get to experience everything but I would like to go over some of the other features of The Galleria Hatfield that we’ve experienced before.
Throughout some of the school holidays they do add extra bits to the mall, including a mini train on a track upstairs, ice skating & mini golf. Please check the website to see what it on & when.
All year round we have the amazing Odeon cinema, which we have headed to a few times & a fantastic array of restaurants, including, Prezzo, Harvester, Nandos, McDonalds & SO many more. Whilst the entire mall isn’t open late night the cinema & food outlets are so you can be sure to enjoy them to the usual times.

Please be aware there are three car parks, 2 outside & 1 multi-storey. It is exceptionally rare that you are unable to get a space even at the busiest of times. Parking is charged hourly & you are timed in & out by ANPR cameras, you can pay before you leave or once you get home online. Which is great if you happen to be like me & NEVER carry change.

You can find The Galleria Hatfield at:
The Galleria, Hatfield
Comet Way
Hatfield
AL10 0XR

**PLEASE NOTE** We were kindly gifted free entry into the soft play on our visit to The Galleria Hatfield, however all thoughts & opinions in this blog are our own.